5 ms·

This is Zimmermann's third attempt at encrypted phone calls, at roughly 9 year intervals: PGPfone (1995) and Zfone (~2004/5). I'll assume that this will be a l

by alister 14y ago

This is Zimmermann's third attempt at encrypted phone calls, at roughly 9 year intervals: PGPfone (1995) and Zfone (~2004/5). I'll assume that this will be a lot easier to use than the earlier programs, and I'll also grant that smartphones are a much bigger market than VOIP software for desktops. I want to see Zimmermann's product to succeed, and I'd love to see all phone calls have unbreakable end-to-end encryption by default. However, as the article points out, it is difficult to persuade consumers to spend their own money on privacy. The only way I can see consumers starting to care is if we get a massive wikileaks-style dump of millions of private phone calls that some malware or government has intercepted and recorded.

vr000m 14y ago
From the article it seems that Zimmermann is reusing ZRTP, which was/is also part of Zfone.
- rdl 14y ago
  The transport is probably the easiest part of the whole system; the hardest part is convincing people of the need, followed by "we're the central point of secure to insecure" not itself being a massive monitoring target. UI/UX, key management (and directory management, kind of the same thing), and running the gateways themselves are kind of a problem too. I hope they support multiple providers (including setting it up yourself) for Circle -> PSTN/SIP/etc., to avoid this problem. (I know Jon Callas, I guess I should ask him) They could probably charge $500/mo for 10 users for secure email/voice/sms/etc. for groups, vs. $20/mo for individuals, if there was zero security exposure to the central servers for the groups, and if the groups could locally connect to their own/existing infrastructure. Add some trivial Mobile Device Management (MDM) functionality (forcing passcodes, remote wipe, etc. -- trivial stuff, not the huge monstrosity of corporate MDM products). Basically, BES + VoIP for non-dead (iOS+Android, vs. BB) platforms.
  - 18pfsmt 14y ago
    Are you familiar with the milkfsh project? I use it to talk with my brother, but getting anyone else I know to set it up has been impossible. http://www2.milkfish.org.sipwerk.com/?page_id=2 http://www2.milkfish.org.sipwerk.com/?page_id=2
shareme 14y ago
Fourth, Teleseret 2010

by alister 14y ago

vr000m 14y ago

From the article it seems that Zimmermann is reusing ZRTP, which was/is also part of Zfone.

rdl 14y ago
The transport is probably the easiest part of the whole system; the hardest part is convincing people of the need, followed by "we're the central point of secure to insecure" not itself being a massive monitoring target. UI/UX, key management (and directory management, kind of the same thing), and running the gateways themselves are kind of a problem too. I hope they support multiple providers (including setting it up yourself) for Circle -> PSTN/SIP/etc., to avoid this problem. (I know Jon Callas, I guess I should ask him) They could probably charge $500/mo for 10 users for secure email/voice/sms/etc. for groups, vs. $20/mo for individuals, if there was zero security exposure to the central servers for the groups, and if the groups could locally connect to their own/existing infrastructure. Add some trivial Mobile Device Management (MDM) functionality (forcing passcodes, remote wipe, etc. -- trivial stuff, not the huge monstrosity of corporate MDM products). Basically, BES + VoIP for non-dead (iOS+Android, vs. BB) platforms.
- 18pfsmt 14y ago
  Are you familiar with the milkfsh project? I use it to talk with my brother, but getting anyone else I know to set it up has been impossible. http://www2.milkfish.org.sipwerk.com/?page_id=2 http://www2.milkfish.org.sipwerk.com/?page_id=2

shareme 14y ago

Fourth, Teleseret 2010